Merced High rallies behind Bears’ quest for girls first basketball section title
The Merced High girls basketball team received a conquering hero’s welcome when they returned to school on Wednesday after upsetting top seed Placer on Tuesday night.
Teachers, administrators, classmates and friends congratulated the Bears players as they walked the halls and entered class.
“I felt famous,” said Merced senior Khya Martin. “It felt good. I’ve never received that type of recognition. It felt good to get recognized. I had people congratulate us that I didn’t even know cared about basketball.”
“It was every class we went in and when we walked down the hallways,” fellow senior Amari Stamps said. “It’s the first time I’ve felt like that. It felt different, it was good.”
Merced High has gotten behind the Bears’ chase of history.
The Bears have never won a girls basketball Sac-Joaquin Section championship. Merced (27-3) will try to win its first blue banner on Friday against Christian Brothers (23-8) at the Sacramento Kings’ Golden 1 Center at 2 p.m.
Merced has made three appearances in the championship game, but the last time was in 1992.
“I feel like we’d be making history,” said senior Sierra Smith. “I feel me and my team really deserve to win one of these blue banners hanging on the wall.”
The school has bought into the chase.
Three rooter buses will make the trip to Sacramento. When word got out that there would be buses transporting students to Sacramento for the game, 100 students quickly picked up permission slips.
There will be 162 students, including cheerleaders and band members making the trip. That doesn’t count the parents and fans making the trip on their own.
“There was a pumped up feeling around campus,” said Merced athletic director Paul Hogue. “We had kids coming in all morning asking if there was going to be a bus. Once we had the buses confirmed by lunch we handed out 100 permission slips. We’re treating it like a field trip.”
The school is holding a watch party for kids and staff who can’t make the trip to Sacramento in the school gym at 2 p.m. Teachers can also stream the game in their classrooms.
With spring sports officially starting on Friday, booking buses wasn’t easy.
“Our transportation department really came through,” Hogue said. “With spring sports starting on Friday, every vehicle for transportation was accounted for. The transportation department stepped up and found three charter buses.”
Having the school’s support will only feed into the confidence of a Merced team riding a 19-game winning streak.
The No. 5 Bears have earned their way to the title game by pulling off back-to-back upsets on the road. Merced knocked off No. 4 East Union in the quarterfinals and then No. 1 Placer in the semifinals. The Bears had to come from behind in the fourth quarter in both games.
“My feeling the last 20 games is we’re going to win, I just don’t know how we’re going to win,” Martin said. “I try not to put my head down when we’re down because I know my teammates are watching. I believe we’re going to figure it out.”
What’s made Merced’s success even more special is the team has nine seniors who have put in countless hours of work during their high-school careers to make this happen.
“We always wanted this since our freshmen year,” Stamps said. “Now we’re about to graduate and we’ve finally achieved it. It feels pretty good.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 10:55 AM.
